Painted Thoughts Blog: texture

Letting the Page Evolve

View From Hamburger Mary's
5.5 x 8.5 inches
Ink and Watercolor
Stillman & Birn Zeta

Just as a planned day sometimes takes an unexpected detour that turns out to be far more enjoyable than what was originally planned, so goes a journal page.

When it comes to the page, I usually have a vague plan in mind of what I'm trying to capture/create. The day, not so much.

We had a loose plan to have lunch at Carmine's, an old establishment that's been in Ybor City forever and to go to the movies.

Tin ceilings and concrete floors are just part of the "ambience" of Carmine's, but they do not make for good acoustics. Since it was Father's Day weekend, there were several groups in the restaurant, each talking over the other in an effort to be heard. Add to that a two-year-old who desperately needed a nap and it was bedlam.

We couldn't hear ourselves think, let alone speak, so we left before they came to take our drink order. We knew finding another place to eat wouldn't be a problem. There are plenty of great restaurants in Ybor City. If you go hungry, it's your own fault.

We wandered down the street to Hamburger Mary's and it was blessedly quiet. A bonus of this new venue was our waiter—he was quite a treat! It was obvious he liked people, cutting up and having fun. Of course, at Mary's, I think that may be part of the job requirement.

Back to the sketch…looking around, I spotted the window above across the way. It was partially blocked by an overhang, but I could see enough of it and decided to go for it. At this point, I would sketch the window and add just a splash of color, but not color the whole thing.

Nothing would do but for the waiter to sit down beside me in the booth to see where I was looking as he could not see the window from his perspective while standing up. Leaving the booth, he turned to ask, "Do you want some crayons?"

"Nope," I responded, "brought my own."

The food was excellent and Mary's typically has great cakes and when I inquired about flavors, I was told there was no cake. NO cake?! How could this be?!

The waiter offered me cookies, brownies, a bun with frosting and several other combinations. He even offered to step down to another restaurant to get me a piece of cake. Now, mind you, most of these were offered with a heavy dose of sarcasm and a large dollop of humor.

When I informed him only Mary's cake and no other would do, he threw up his hands and walked away muttering (again, all in playful jest).

In the end, he surprised me with a Hershey's® chocolate bar when he delivered the check. What a cool (and sweet) thing to do!

Between goofing around with the waiter and sketching, we were nearly late to the movie. Eek! When we left Mary's, this was as far as I'd made it:

The beginning of the page.
The red oval highlights the mistake I made right off the bat.

Because I was too busy playing with the waiter and not spending enough time concentrating on my sketch, there are a number of "structural" issues with the sketch above and when I finally got past the overhang, I was quite surprised to see the top of the window looked nothing like my sketch.

In fact, it wasn't until later that I figured out what the problem was. Rather than letting it stand, I pulled out my white Sharpie poster marker and extended the white window sill over to the right.

The day and sketch would have been woefully deficient had I not added the Hershey bar and Hamburger Mary's logo in honor of a man that was fabulous at his job. He really was too much fun, not to mention a real sweetie!

We hurried to the ticket counter and purchased tickets for How To Train Your Dragon 2. I walked into the theater waving my sketchbook up and down in order to get the page dry so I could put the book away before the start of the movie. (Great movie and highly recommended!)

After watching HTTYD2, we decided to see Edge of Tomorrow (an excellent movie) with Tom Cruise. We haven't watched two movies back-to-back (at the theater) in years, but it was fun and made for a very enjoyable day. Besides, it looked like it was getting ready to flood outside.

Adding a ticket from each movie to the right side of the page serves as a reminder of what we did. All in all, a fabulous day and the sketch will make it easy to remember as I flip back through the book.

Movie tickets added to the page and a close up of the white "fix."

You can see the "corrected" window sill in this image.

Despite the imperfections, I find they don't detract from the memory in any way. If anything, for me, they add to the "patina" of the page as they speak to my divided attention.

The journaling was added last as I recaptured my thoughts of the day, but I wanted it to appear as though the chocolate and sticker had been added last.

Rather than get aggravated about the change to our day, we managed to embrace those unexpected moments and add them to the day and the page. It made for a far richer experience.

13 Creative Thought(s)

, by Laure Ferlita

experiment

Adding (Unusual) Texture To The Page (Tutorial)

If we keep our eyes and our minds open, we can often find texture in unexpected places…

Texture From An Unlikely Source

I often use small dishes when I'm working on a big painting where I need a large amount of paint. By using a separate dish, I'm assured I'll have a) plenty of paint; b) won't accidentally mix it up with another color; and c) I'll have it until the painting is finished…for a really long time. (I've been known to go back into a painting 6 months after it was finished.)

Messy palette dishes

However, years later it is unlikely I'll make changes and since the dishes seemed to be multiplying in the cabinet, it was time to clean up the mess.

As I began the big clean up (dang, there were a lot of those little dishes!), I became intrigued with what was left in the some of the palettes:

Texture left at the bottom of small dish. The textured area is about 2.5 x 1 inches in size.

I took photos and cropped out the dish so I was left with this:

Accidental texture from the bottom of the dish

After printing the page, I prepped the art by tearing down the edges:

Tearing down the edges of the printed art with a deckle-edged ruler

Next, I began to consider what I wanted to do with the background of the page. Since I was on a "texture adventure," I decided to create even more texture:

salt, alcohol and lifting created the texture

Starting with granulating paint, I added salt, alcohol splatters and did some lifting with a tissue to create a build-up of texture on the page.

Next, I decided to rid the art texture of that harsh white border by painting it with a wash of the same paints used on the background:

Painting the edges of the art so that it blended with the background

Gluing it down, I began to build up the page with rubber stamps and additional pieces of torn paper:

Using rubber stamps, a variety of inks, and torn paper, I created more interest in the background
and around the art itself.

It was fun to choose stamps at random, going on instinct and intuition, as I had no idea how the page would finish out.

An added "shadow" on two edges of the texture art gives it more dimension

When all was said and done, this was my completed page:

Finished Page in a
Stillman and Birn Zeta Journal
5.5 x 8.5 inches
Watercolor, stamps, torn paper, dip pen, Pitt pens and foil

Even Willis wanted to check it out a little closer!

Willis checking out the page. I think she favors the other page,
but then she's fickle.

What was fun to me is that the art texture, now a print, has been made into a finished page. A one of a kind page. Because I still have the "art," I can see dozens of ways to use the texture and it will probably show up in another project.

This has been somewhat of a break-out project for me as I continue to explore and look for different ways of doing what I enjoy—creating a page in my journal. A rather unusual way of marking cleaning up my studio, don't you think!?! I also think this kind of play will have an impact on the way I create location sketches as well.

The next time you see unusual texture, take a photo and think about how you might add it to your page. You might just be surprised at where it will take you!

10 Creative Thought(s)

, by Laure Ferlita

from life

Making the Most Out of Downtime (House Renovations)

It would seem that I'm going to get more "mileage" out of this house renovation than expected—both figuratively and literally.

The project has"tentatively" expanded again, however, I'll be saving those details until we actually see if the product is going to work the way we want it to. But because the product is on clearance, I took myself over to the next county to pick up more boards—you've no idea how upset I would be if this works and we didn't have enough materials! It would NOT be pretty.

It seemed only fair that if I were picking up the boards that I should have a little fun along the way. Since I had to pass a Hobby Lobby on my way to the store...I just had to stop on my way back! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), they didn't really have anything that spoke to me.

Part of the problem was that I was hungry. There happened to be a cute little place called Firehouse Subs in the same shopping center and they were busy, busy, busy. It's a chain sub shop—you may even have one in your neighborhood. At this location, when you walk in the door, all the workers call out, "Welcome to Firehouse!" There is one woman who works there and she has a very strong northeastern (New York?) accent. It's always a treat to hear her!

"Welcome to Firehouse!"
Watercolor and Non-Permanent Ink
5.5" x 11"
Pineapple Sketchbook

I decided to do some sketching while I waited for my "Hook and Ladder" sub. One of the sandwich makers happened by as I was sketching and asked what I was doing. I replied I was sketching. She glanced at my sketch and then asked what I was sketching. I pointed to the wall with the "retired" fireman's jacket, pants, and boots. The hat was imaginary. I added it for balance. She glanced at the wall and back at the page and said, "That's pretty good...actually."

Her response made my day. I smiled the better part of the afternoon!

I didn't have time to add color at the restaurant, so I did it last night from memory. I had used a non-waterproof pen to sketch and wasn't sure at the time if I would add color or not.

I had lit a "autumn-season-smell-good-type of candle and as I was dousing the match in a stream of water, decided to set it aside to use later on my sketch. Once some of the water had dried, I used it to add "soot marks" to the fireman's outfit. I then used my finger to rub it in a little more.

No one but me will ever know what I did, but that's okay. It was a fun way to add a touch of texture to the sketch!

Wishing y'all an awesome weekend...I will be embroiled in a home renovation. What will you be doing?